Dutch Intelligence: Competition Could Fuel Jihadi Plots

A "large scale, spectacular attack in Europe or the US": this is the prediction of the Netherlands' Intelligence Service (AIVD). And, they say, it could happen very soon.

The AIVD's report on 2015, released last week, analyzes the threat of terrorism, cyber-terrorism, and other national security issues based on the past year's events and global intelligence-gathering. The agency found that ongoing competition between jihadist groups is proving even more dangerous than the threat of continued "lone wolf" attacks and localized bombings by jihadists who have either returned from the Islamic State or were inspired by them. That competition, particularly between al-Qaida and ISIS, is likely to lead to major attacks on the West in order to "demonstrate to one another that each is the real leader of jihadism," the AIVD report says. This is particularly crucial for al-Qaida, which may stage an attack soon in order to re-assert its prestige and power at a time when ISIS seems to be getting the most attention.These predictions align with similar warnings from former CIA operative Brian Fairchild, who last fall also warned of "another 9/11," driven by rivalry among the terrorist groups.That rivalry is intensifying as various factions continue to battle for power in the Levant. Al-Qaida, for instance, recently published a statement accusing ISIS of "lies and deceit," and describing them as "one of the biggest dangers today in the jihadi fields." And in a video, al-Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri called ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, "illegitimate." ISIS, according to al-Qaida, "invoked the curse of Allah" on its opponents, specifically on Jabhat al Nusra. Al Nusra, which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaida, is considered another powerful rival of ISIS.Like the AIVD's 2005 report, "From Dawa To Jihad," now something of a classic in the literature about the radicalization of Western Muslims, many insights presented in this year's overview are likely to be taken seriously by intelligence agencies and counter-terrorism strategists globally. Alongside concerns about a major attack in the near-term, for instance, the AIVD report offers an analysis of the complexities of Islamic terrorism at this moment – and the vastness of its reach.Those complexities again put the lie to notions that Islamic extremism breeds in impoverished neighborhoods, among the unemployed and disenfranchised. They defy, too, ideas that immigration is to blame, or that simply "closing the borders" will solve the threat. As the report notes:

"The attacks in Europe present a disturbing illustration of the threat Europe currently faces: people from our own homelands, who grew up here and mostly were radicalized here, stand ready and willing to take up weapons against the West [....] So, too are jihadists who return from the battlefields of jihad prepared to perpetrate similar atrocities [at home] – and jihadists who had planned to join the foreign battle, but never succeeded [in making the trip]. Young, inexperienced jihadists can perpetrate attacks, but those jihad-veterans known to intelligence officials and who have long been quiet may also suddenly come roaring back."

Similarly, "attacks could be planned and attackers sent from outside Europe, or they can be planned and activated from within; they could be major attacks, arranged by professionals far in advance, or relatively simple and small-scale," the AIVD report says. "The threat can come from organized groups and networks sent in to commit attacks but also by individuals or small groups who sympathize with a certain jihadist group."Moreover, the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), which often is misleadingly characterized as "moderate," poses an additional threat. "JaN is a jihadist organization connected with al-Qaida and whose purpose, in part, is to commit attacks against the West," the report says.And while the death of many al-Qaida leaders may have caused some disruption, this does not mean that the organization is weakened, or that the threat of another al-Qaida attack against the West has vanished. Rather, battling for the mantle of dominant jihadi group could strengthen its determination to wage spectacular attacks.And it isn't just violent attacks. While the AIVD has found a rising interest among Dutch Muslims in obtaining weapons, the agency notes that in at least one case, the purpose was to perform a series of armed robberies in order to finance terrorist groups in Syria.What is certain is that Salafism, the radical Islamic ideology that supports violent jihad, is very much on the rise in the Netherlands. Added to this development is the ISIS propaganda machine, which the report's authors say, sends the message that terrorism is a form of heroism. Combined, the two forces stand to raise radicalization and the probable involvement in terrorism in the homeland.For the Dutch, as for other Europeans, the danger does not just come from jihadists at home and those in Syria. Belgium, with its many extremist and terrorist groups, is just across the Dutch border. Paris is a short, high-speed train ride away. And as officials increasingly crack down in those two countries, the chances are great that terrorists there will travel elsewhere, looking for the nearest place to hide – and kill. The result is a multi-pronged threat that hovers over the country, and increasingly, over Europé.Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New York and the Netherlands.

Majority of EU Jihadists Recruited in Four Countries: Belgium, UK, France and Germany

Some 2,838 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria came from Belgium, Britain, France and Germany.

THE HAGUE – Around 4,000 Europeans have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join extremist groups as foreign fighters, most from just four EU countries, a new study released Friday said.

Of the estimated 3,922 to 4,294 foreign fighters from EU member states, some 2,838 came from Belgium, Britain, France and Germany, said the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague.

Using data supplied by 26 EU countries, the independent think-tank found that while around 30 percent have since returned home, about 14 percent were killed on the battlefield.

The centre also found that there was “no clear-cut profile” of a foreign fighter. Some 17 percent of the group were women, and up to 23 percent were converts to Islam.

More than 90 percent come from large metropolitan areas, some from the same neighbourhoods suggesting the “radicalisation process” is short and “often involves circles of friends radicalising as a group and deciding to leave jointly for Syria and Iraq.”

The report — complied before the March 22 attacks in Brussels — reiterated that Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in the European Union.

Between September 2014 and September 2015 there were reportedly some 30,000 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria from around 104 countries.

“Experts and government officials have increasingly warned of the potential security threat this phenomenon might also pose to Europe and beyond,” the report said.

It found that while European countries have tightened national security and border controls, only nine have made it a criminal offence to become a foreign fighter.

Few countries also have any kind of reintegration programme for those returning from the conflict areas.

And the changing pattern of foreign fighters, including the radicalisation of women as well as the very young, as well as those with possible mental health issues “are not (yet) reflected in more targeted policies.”

The centre recommended that the EU should set up an internal reporting system, saying there was “a clear need for an effective (and centralised) monitoring and evaluation framework” to analyse the impact of existing policies.

How Radicalization Was Allowed to Fester in Belgium

by Abigail R. EsmanSpecial to IPT News April 19, 2016

These are the numbers, the hard facts: Twenty months. Three terrorist attacks. One hundred seventy dead. And almost all the killers grew up in or at one time lived in Belgium.Squeezed into a corner bounded by France, Germany and the Netherlands, tiny Belgium has produced more jihadists than any other Western country (relative to its population) since 9/11. The most recent attacks, at the Brussels Maalbeek metro station and Zaventem Airport on March 22, killed at least 32 people and wounded dozens more. On Nov. 13, gunmen from the Brussels district of Molenbeek killed 130 men and women in Paris at a soccer stadium, a restaurant, and concert hall. And in May 2014, Mehdi Nemmouche, a returnee from Syria, shot and killed four people at the entrance to Brussels' Jewish Museum. Since then, the media has been filled with reports on Belgium as a "new hotbed of terrorism," while politicians have looked at one another blankly, asking "why?"But the other hard fact is that there is nothing especially new about any of this. Belgium has been a center for Islamic terrorism for more than 20 years, most notably in the aftermath of a series of 1995 and 1998 bombings in France. Those attacks, which targeted, among others, the Paris Metro and the Arc de Triomphe, were committed by the Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, an Algerian militant group affiliated with al-Qaida, many of whose members lived in Belgium.Indeed, most of the earlier Islamist terror attacks in Belgium and France were committed by Algerian GIA members, including Farid Melouk, who plotted, among other targets, to bomb the 1998 Paris World Cup. Sentenced to nine years in 1998 for his involvement in terrorism, Melouk is believed to have known and influenced Chérif Kouachi, one of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris last January.Only later, with the growth of al-Qaida after 9/11, did recruiters turn more to Moroccan immigrants like Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the mastermind of the Nov. 13 strikes, and Khalid Zerkani, believed to have served as a mentor to the current generation of Belgian jihadists.But not all these 1990s jihadists were strictly GIA: in the aftermath of the 1995 Paris attacks, for instance, during a raid on the home of one Belgian GIA member, police discovered among the weapons "training manual," dedicated to Osama bin Laden. There have also been reports of computer disks containing al-Qaida manuals found in Belgium around this time, but they remain unconfirmed.But most notable is a report that Belgium repeatedly did little to combat the threat. Rather, according to journalist Paul Belien, Belgian authorities "made a deal with the GIA terrorists, agreeing to turn a blind eye to conspiracies hatched on Belgian soil in exchange for immunity from attack."If the deal was real, it did nothing to protect Belgian Muslims from radicalization. Those include converts like Muriel Degauque, who in 2005 earned the dubious distinction of being Belgium's first female suicide bomber when she blew herself up in Baghdad, killing five.Moreover, the radicalization of Belgian Muslims has become nearly a local institution, through national political groups like Sharia4Belgium and, previously, the Arab European League (AEL). Founded In 2000 by Lebanese immigrant Dyab Abou Jahjah, the AEL spread briefly beyond Belgium to France and the Netherlands before eventually petering out around 2006. But in its short life, it stirred pro-Islamist sentiment among many Belgian Muslim youth, helping to pave the way for Sharia4Belgium, and its recruiting of warriors for ISIS.Alongside both of these movements has been the one-man operation of Khalid Zerkani, who is known to his followers as "The Santa Claus of jihad," the New York Timesreports. Zerkani, Belgian federal prosecutor Bernard Michel told the Times, "has perverted an entire generation of youngsters," including various Molenbeek residents who were involved in the Zaventem killings, and Abdelhamid Abbaaoud, the Paris attack leader. Other Zerkani disciples have joined the Islamic State in Syria. On April 14, Zerkani, who was arrested in 2014, was sentenced to 15 years in Belgian prison for jihad recruiting. But – despite ongoing arrests in Molenbeek and other regions throughout Belgium – his influence, like that of Sharia4Belgium and the relics of Belgium's terrorist past, continues to walk free on Europe's streets.Timeline of Jihadist Events in Belgium1990s – Armed Islamic Group (GIA), an Algerian terrorist group, forms cells in Belgium and France.1995July 25 – GIA sets of bombs at the Saint-Michel station of Paris RER, killing eight and wounding 80August 17 – bombs set by GIA at the Arc de Triomphe wounds 17August 26 – GIA bomb found on railroad tracks near LyonSeptember 3– car bomb at Lyon Jewish school wounds 14October 6– explosion in Paris Metro wounds 13October 17– gas bottle explodes between Musee d'Orsay and Notre Dame stations of Paris metro, wounding 291998March 6 – Belgian officials storm a Brussels residence, arresting Farid Melouk, suspected leader of Belgian GIA and organizer of Paris attacks.Six other GIA operatives are also arrested, all linked to various Paris bombings.March 22 – Belgian police uncover GIA plot to bomb the World Cup soccer event in France that June. During a raid in Brussels, police uncover explosives, detonators, Kalashnikovs, and thousands of dollars in cash. Again, Farid Melouk is believed to be associated.May 26 – Police raid homes in Brussels and Charleroi based on evidence found in a GIA safe house in Brussels earlier. Ten people are detained.1999May 15 – Farid Melouk sentenced to nine years in Brussels court.2000February – Dyab Abou Jahjah establishes the Arab-European League in Antwerp, declaring that "assimilation is cultural rape," and calling for Islamic schools, Arab-language education, and recognition of Islamic holidays. His goal is to create what he calls a "sharocracy" – a sharia-based democracy.2001September 11 – Al-Qaida hijackers plow commercial jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; a fourth jet, believed to be headed for the White House, is downed by passengers who overtake control. About 3,000 people are killed. The event marks a turning point for Muslim extremism and the rise of Muslim terrorism throughout the West.September 13 – Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian, is arrested in Belgium and charged with plans to bomb a US-NATO military base.September 30 – Sixteen additional suspects are also arrested in what prosecutors call a "spider's web of radicals."2003October 1 – Belgian courts convict 18 accused terrorists with suspected ties to al-Qaida, including Trabelsi, who receives a 10-year sentence.2005November 9 – Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert, blows herself up in Baghdad near a group of policemen, killing five.2009December – After uncovering believable plans for an attack in Belgium, Antwerp police arrest 10 men, charging them with membership in a terrorist organization. Most members of the alleged terror cell are believed to live in Antwerp. Some are Dutch nationals.2010March – Fouad Belkacem establishes Sharia4Belgium.November – Belgian officials arrest 10 members of a local terrorist cell suspected of planning attacks locally. Counterterrorism officials admit they are facing growing radicalization among the country's Muslim youth, in part through the work of Sharia4Belgium, which seeks to transform Belgium into an Islamic state.2012September 15 – 230 radicalized Muslim members of Sharia4Belgium are arrested during anti-American riots in protest against the film "Innocence of Muslims." In 2015, officials would discover that 70 of those arrested had joined the jihad in Syria. "The list [of those arrested then] reads today like a passenger list for the Syria-Express," one investigator told Dutch TV program Een Vandaag.2013October 3 – Nizar Trabelsi, having served out his term in the 2001 bombing plot , is extradited to the United States. He is charged "with conspiracy to kill U.S Nationals outside of the United States; conspiracy and attempt to use weapons of mass destruction" and providing material support to terrorists.2015January 7-9 – In Paris, a rash of terrorist attacks take the lives of 17 people, including most of the staff of controversial satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and four Jews at a kosher market outside the city. Cherif Kouachi, responsible for the Charlie Hebdo killings, had had earlier contact with Farid Melouk. The attackers all claim to be sworn to the Islamic State.November 13 – Further terrorist attacks in Paris – at the Stade de France stadium, Bataclan concert hall, and several restaurants – kill 130 people and injure more than 350. Most of the perpetrators come from (or have lived in) the Molenbeek region of Brussels, including suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Abaaoud is also suspected of having been radicalized by Zerkani. ISIS claims responsibility.November 14-early 2016 – ongoing arrests and investigations in Molenbeek lead to several additional arrests.2016March 15 – Police sweep down on a residence in Vorst, a section of Brussels, arresting four suspects believed to be planning an attack. A fifth, Algerian Mohamed Melkaid, is shot and killed while firing his Kalashnikov at the police. An ISIS flag is found at the scene.March 18 – Saleh Abdeslam, the sole surviving member of the terrorist team that attacked Paris in November, is arrested in Molenbeek following a shootout. Evidence found in the house in Vorst helped lead them to Abdeslam, who had been in hiding for 120 days, mostly in plain sight in Molenbeek.His arrest leads to riots among Muslim youth in the district.March 22 – Coordinated attacks at Brussels-Zaventem airport and the Brussels Maarbeek metro stop kill 32. Two of the suicide bombers, brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, had been involved in planning the November Paris attacks; a third, Najim Laachraoui, is suspected as having made the bombs for both Paris and Brussels attacks. Laachraoui is also suspected of having had connections with Melkaid.March 23-ongoing – Belgian and French police and counterterrorism forces continue to arrest terrorist suspects connected to either the Paris or Brussels attacks, all of them linked with Belgium-based terror cells. One suspect, Osama Krayem (aka Naim Hamed), a Swedish national, admits having backed out of plans to bomb a second metro station, and agrees to cooperate with Brussels police.April 14 – Kahlid Zerkani receives the maximum 15-year sentence in Brussels courts. The sentence, delivered on appeal, is an increase over the previous sentence of 12 years.**Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New York and the Netherlands.﻿

torsdag, april 21, 2016

Report: German Refugee Program Money Given to Hizballah Operatives

by IPT News • Apr 20, 2016 at 1:07 pm

Hizballah activists continue to operate freely in Germany and serve as senior employees of a German government-funded theater project intended to aid refugees in the country, according to the Berliner Zeitung daily and reported

by the Jerusalem Post.

Two directors of the Refugee Club Impulse (RCI), sisters Nadia and Maryam Grassman, were central organizers of the annual pro-Iran/pro-Hizballah al-Quds Day rally in 2015 featuring "anti-Semitic slogans" and calls for "the abolition of Israel."

Video and photographic evidence showed Nadia chanting on a loudspeaker while Maryam disseminated fliers and posters and collected donations during the anti-Semitic rally. It is uncertain whether the donations were intended to fund Hizballah's terrorist operations in Syria and against Israel.

The RCI is expected to receive €100,000 ($113,260 USD) from the German government for the refugee project. Public taxpayer money has been transferred to the organization for several years.

There are roughly 250 active Hizballah operatives in Berlin and a total of 950 Hizballah members throughout Germany, according to a 2014 Berlin intelligence report summarized by the Jerusalem Post. Though the number of Hizballah supporters is believed to be far higher in Germany than listed in the report.

Radical Islamists are "the greatest danger to Germany...Germany is on the spectrum of goals for Islamic terrorists," said Hans-Georg Maassen, president of Germany's domestic intelligence agency – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

In 2014, Germany closed down the Lebanon Orphan Children Project for providing money to the al-Shahid ("The Martyr") Association in Lebanon. Al-Shahid was "disguised as a humanitarian organization" and "promotes violence and terrorism in the Middle East using donations collected in Germany and elsewhere," German security expert Alexander Ritzmann said in a 2009 European Foundation for Democracy report.

While the European Union, including Germany, designated Hizballah's military wing as a terrorist entity, Germany allows Hizballah's political wing to operate freely in the country. The U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization entirely. Even senior Hizballah officials have noted the futility in distinguishing between its political and military wings, acknowledging that Hizballah is a hierarchical and bureaucratic organization with a clear chain of command. Therefore the organization's terrorist and military wings answer to its senior leadership and political echelons, including its main benefactor – Iran.

The scale of the Islamic State’s operations in Europe are still not known, but they appear to be larger and more layered than investigators at first realized; if the Paris and Brussels attacks are any model, the plotters will rely on local criminal networks in addition to committed extremists.

But it also was a reminder of the ease with which the Islamic State’s operatives move across borders and the shifting roles that suspects play: According to prosecutors, Mr. Abrini was a logistician in the Paris attacks but was meant to be a bomber in the Brussels attack — except that his bomb failed to explode.

“Other Islamic State cells are highly likely to be in existence across Western Europe, preparing and organizing further operations, and awaiting direction from the group’s central leadership to execute,” said Matthew Henman, the head of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London.

It adds up to a long road ahead in Europe for law enforcement and intelligence agencies but also for citizens who are having to learn to adapt to an array of new security precautions and more intrusive surveillance, especially in public places.

“We are not finished yet with the job of finding everyone who is in this big network of Paris and Brussels,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, the head of the French Center for the Analysis of Terrorism in Paris. “Every time progress is made, we add another few people to the list of people we are looking for.”

“There are still many people involved who were part of the Zerkani network, who were convicted in absentia — at least five to 10 — and we don’t know where they are or what they might do,” Mr. Brisard said.

Kriket had Kalashnikov assault rifles, a submachine gun, pistols, ammunition and four boxes containing thousands of small steel balls.

Four men in touch with Mr. Kriket, who were arrested in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, had in their possession 45 kilograms of ammunition, according to the Dutch Public Broadcaster, NOS. That is enough ammunition for 2,500 rounds, which is enough to supply as many as a dozen gunmen with multiple magazines.

“Other Islamic State cells are highly likely to be in existence across Western Europe, preparing and organizing further operations, and awaiting direction from the group’s central leadership to execute,” said Matthew Henman, the head of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London.

Officials believed that the Islamic State had developed an overarching network of facilitators in Europe over the last few years to buy weapons, rent cars and reserve hotel rooms for teams of operatives who had previously traveled to, or were returning from, Iraq or Syria.

Att uppmana läraren att säga uppsig, att ge upp inför antisemitismen...Det tycks vara en berättelse från den israeliskalärarinnans Facebook som nrg funnit och återger.According to nrg, “A” posted on Facebook a description of her experience with the principal of the school where she had only begun working in February.“Listen, ‘A,’ you know that I’m on your side,” she recounted her employer saying to her. “And it’s really unpleasant for me to say this to you, but I think that problems are liable to arise here as a result of your origins.”“A” said he explained, “It won’t be easy for you here. Most of the Swedish pupils are racists. They hate everybody, but especially Jews, so it could easily be that you will be getting it from them and the Arab pupils. I suggest you seek employment elsewhere, far from schools. And you know that I’m telling you this because I care about you.”“A” told nrg that Malmö “has become a place I no longer recognize. I feel the way I did when I arrived here 39 years ago – like a tourist. Though the buildings and streets are familiar, Everything else has changed.”“A” said that the “situation has grown increasingly worse since Operation Cast Lead,” referring to the three-week IDF incursion into Gaza – from December 2008 to January 18, 2009 – to stop terrorist rocket-fire into Israel and weapons smuggling into the Hamas-controlled enclave.“I felt all choked up” during the conversation with the principal, she wrote on Facebook. “But I managed to stop the tears. I was silent, and not only because I couldn’t breathe, but because I already knew which ‘problems’ could arise. I understood that even the many scarves I would have to wear to hide my Star of David wouldn’t help. I would have to keep quiet when asked about my background.”She continued: “On the way home, alone in a train car, I allowed the tears of my frustration to flow. I was angry with myself. I was angry with my frustration. I was angry with my tears. I was angry about maybe having to find other work, not as a teacher. Above all, I was angry at Sweden in 2016. When I arrived home, I began to look for another job.”Utan att veta mera om det aktuella fallet kan man lätt konstatera att berättelsen verkar trovärdig.Islamiseringen av Malmö, och inte minst dess skolor,pågår sedan tjugo år, men har tydligt accelererat desenaste åren. Bilden av de islamistiska elevernastotala dominans med tigande svenska elever, somlätt dras med i den anti-israeliska hets de upp-muntras till av medierna, skildras av mångasom har insyn i dagens skola.Inte minst bilden av den "smidige" rektorn, som vet att det inte är lönt att försöka bekämpa den av kommunledningen uppmuntradeislamismen...Det skulle bara skada hans egen karriär.Det som blev den utlösande faktorn för den antisemitiska explosionen varsocialdemokratins samarbetsavtal med MuslimskaBrödraskapet och varbölden Reepalus allians med Hamas.Malmö har fungerat som islamismens (och därmed anti-semitismens) spjutspets i Sverige.Polis och åklagare kapitulerade tidigt.Man förstår också att lärarinnan (och stadensövriga judar) inte uppfattar församlingsledningens vacklande linje som ett särskilt pålitligt stöd.Många har tyvärr dragit en logisk slutsats.Heder åt rabbi Kesselman, som istället uppmuntrarMalmös judar att stanna och ta strid mot islamiseringen, roten till det onda.